Do you know how to backup your virtual machines on VMware platforms? In this article, I will introduce some built-in features and a ESXi backup software to perform free VMware backup.
Data is an important part of any business today. In order to protect virtual machine data from disaster, administrators may choose from a variety of virtual machine backup solutions, following 3-2-1 backup rule.
Taking VMware as an example, an effective VMware backup solution should have the following abilities:
To meet these conditions, it's best to create image-level backup of entire VMs. But as you may know, virtual machine backups (especially in enterprise environments) are often technically challenging and expensive. Is there any affordable or even free VMware backup solution?
In the following, I will introduce some methods you can try to free back up VMware VMs on ESXi.
Before presenting the methods, I would like to make a statement that VM snapshot and backup cannot replace each other, since snapshots are not independent, and will affect your VM performance in the long-term. For businesses or organizations that want long-term data protection, it is better to consider the following backup solutions:
Although there are built-in features that can be used to backup VMware VMs, in these ways you can only manually backup multiple VMs one by one. This may be enough for one or two VMs on VMware Workstation, but for enterprises using VMware ESXi, it may not be sufficient.
Therefore, backup software is popular in this regard. For example, a free VMware backup solution AOMEI Cyber Backup, it enables you to create backup tasks that cover multiple VMs, restore entire VMs, automate VM protection, and send email notifications if there's an error.
If you use free VMware ESXi, your options may have been limited by not supporting vStorage APIs. Don't worry, AOMEI Cyber Backup supports both paid and free ESXi.
You can use this free ESXi backup software to enjoy the following features:
Agentless VM Backup: create complete and independent image-level backup for VMware ESXi and Hyper-V VMs in a central console. Support Free ESXi: support both paid and free versions of VMware ESXi. Multiple Storage Destinations: backup to local drive, NAS or network share. Automated Execution: create backup schedules to automate backups daily, weekly, monthly. Restore Entire VM: restore immediately available VMs from any selected restore points. Role Assignment: allows one administrator to create sub-accounts with limited privileges. Email Notification: send email notification when the task is completed or abnormal. Perpetual Free: you can use AOMEI Cyber Backup Free Edition with no time limit.
Just click the following button to download the free VMware backup software:
*You can choose to install this VM backup software on either Windows or Linux system.
You can centrally manage VMs on both VMware ESXi and Hyper-V host with AOMEI Cyber Backup. The supported versions are VMware ESXi 6.0 and later versions, Hyper-V in Windows 8/8.1/10/11, Windows Server/Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 and later versions.
Next, I will show you how to perform free VMware backup with AOMEI Cyber Backup.
1. Bind Devices: Access to AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to add vCenter or Standalone ESXi host as the source device. And then click … > Bind Device.
2. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and then set Task Name, Backup Type, Device, Target, and Schedule.
3. Run Backup: Click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.
Created backup tasks will be listed and monitored separately, for restoring, progress checking and schedule changing.
✦ While the Free Edition covers most of VM backup needs, you can also upgrade to Premium Edition to enjoy: Batch VM backup: batch backup large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server or on standalone ESXi hosts. Backup cleanup: Configure a retention policy to auto delete old backup files and save storage space. Restore to new location: Create a new VM in the same or another datastore/host directly from the backup, saves the trouble of re-configuring the new VM.
Virtual machine backup is an important VM data protection measure, that ensures you to recover data in time in case of disasters. As VMware ESXi is a widely used type-1 hypervisor, you may also want to backup VMware ESXi VMs for better data security.
In this article, I introduced 4 free VMware backup solutions. As for VMware ESXi, it is commonly agreed that backup software with automation features can better manage large amount of VMs. You can try AOMEI Cyber Backup. Its Free Edition covers all basic features, including create auto backup schedules.